Posted on 05/04/2009 4:19:30 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Yemenite Jews face daily discrimination amidst a Muslim population. The Media Line takes a look at some Yemini Jewish families, their move from small villages to luxurious housing compounds and their integration into society.
Sasa, 12, and 40 other boys of the Jewish minority in Raida, Yemen have stopped going to school. Sasa no longer plays as he used to, though he has never really played like other children.
Sasa, his three brothers and five sisters lost their father and teacher Masha Ya’ish last December when he was shot dead by a former pilot and military officer.
Last February, a Yemeni court convicted the murderer, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment and payment of $25,000 in compensation. All members of the Jewish community, including the deceased’s family, have decided to appeal.
“The ruling is unfair,” says Sasa.
In Raida district, to the north of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, 338 Jews – 70 percent of whom are women – live in two small villages near each other. For survival, they marry each other to keep the Jewish community alive, and inter-marriage is not permitted. Muslim men marry female Jews, but not the other way around. Very few female Jews convert to Islam and marry Muslim Yemenis.
All Jews in both villages share the only Hebrew school and tiny home bases supply shops with flour, rice, sugar, canned food and candy. However, they share the same traditions as rural Yemenis, wearing the same traditional clothing and speaking Arabic Yemeni dialects. Only two long hair girdles (zananir) distinguish a Yemeni Jew from a Muslim.
Moreover, the Jewish men maintain the same conservative attitude towards women as their Muslim counterparts. They force women to wear veils in public and separate boys from girls at school. They can also marry up to four women each.
Boys are circumcised on the seventh day after birth like most Yemenis, with special ceremonial festivities.
“I don’t have friends,” Sasa told The Media Line in Sana’a, where he came to a seminar discussing the situation of the Jewish community in Yemen. “I also don’t play as much as I would like to. None of [the Jewish] kids play much.”
Sasa has been to Sana’a about five times. He likes the city and the amusement park where he likes to play. But this time, his visit was to a seminar where journalists’ cameras were flashing in his face from all corners of the room.
It seems too much for a rural kid to comprehend all that is going on around him. His eyes – from behind spectacles – reveal internal agony for the loss of his father and the promise of harder times, as he is the eldest boy of the family.
Sasa is subjected to harassment by Muslim kids. He wishes he could move to Sana’a if his family could sell their house in the village, but this has proven extremely difficult to do.
Mahmoud Taha, journalist and specialist in Jewish current affairs, says that none of the Muslim neighbors are willing to buy the houses of the Jews, especially after the order of Yemen’s president, ‘Ali ‘Abdullah ‘Salih, that all Jews must move to Sana’a.
After the death of Sasa’s father, three of his sisters, 14, 13 and 11, immigrated to Israel, where they joined their aunts.
“We are in contact with them,” Sasa says. “They ask us to join them, but we don’t want to, and we can’t.”
Life and Rituals
About 65 Jews live now in one of most luxurious housing compounds in the capital after they were displaced by the Shi’ite rebels in the north in 2007. They were threatened with death if they did not leave their homes in the A-Salim district of the northern governorate of Sa’ada.
They moved to Sana’a leaving behind many of their belongings including their books of history and priceless Torah scrolls. The government houses them in Tourist City, where they receive monthly stipends of $25 per person.
The Tourist City rabbi, Yihya Yousuf, tells The Media Line that they have become used to city living and they are enjoying their stay despite the shortage of income.
“We appreciate the direct support of the president of our country,” Yousuf says diplomatically. “We look forward to his generous compensation for the losses we incurred as a result of our displacement from A-Salim.”
Although Yihya, 30, wears a necktie to reflect his urbanized character, he still looks like a rural man with a traditional scarf around his shoulders. Yihya has been to the U.S. twice, first to New York where he studied Hebrew in 1994. He spent two years there, but his attempts to stay failed.
“I love Yemen,” he says. “I missed my home country. I came back in 1996 and got married.”
Yihya has five children who study in a public school with Muslim children.
“They study all courses except the Muslim’s Holy Book “the Quran” and Islamic culture; we teach them Hebrew and Judaism at home,” says Yihya.
The rabbi says his community in Sana’a practices religious rituals in total peace and serenity.
“We don’t have a special building for synagogue, but we use my apartment,” he says. “We use Hebrew in our prayers. We prepare kosher [meals] on Friday to free ourselves for worship on Saturday.”
The Jews across Yemen do not work on Saturdays, nor do they receive phone calls or visitors.
The Day of a Jew
Yihya’s neighbor, Suleiman Mousa, in his 50s, says they live an ordinary life.
“I wake up in the morning and recite my prayers. Then I spend the morning at home teaching kids, do some craft jobs or work watering the garden of the compound. I spend the afternoon chewing qat [the narcotic stimulant of green leaves chewed by Yemenis at large] with family or friends. I stay home in the evening for prayers and home duties,” he says.
Both Yihya and Mousa relate that their women exchange visits with Muslim women and attend weddings of friends.
“We have no problem with that,” Yihya says.
Integration into Society
The integration of Yemeni Jews into general society has been an issue of debate. Although the Yemeni constitution guarantees equal citizenship for all Yemenis, the Jews do not enjoy either equality nor citizenship. None of the Jews are employed in the public service, or work in government agencies. They have practiced the same professions for centuries, such as drafting, tanning, blacksmithing, carpentry, interior decorative design, and other crafts.
Jabri Ibrahim, director of religious guidance of Sana’a municipality, said at the seminar held on April 23, that the Jewish community was part of Yemeni society and belonged to the soil of Yemen.
“We will not let them down whatever happens,” said the Yemeni official. “Islam calls for co-existence and peace.”
‘Adil A-Sharjabi, professor of sociology at Sana’a University, warns of exploiting the Yemeni Jews’ issues by some political parties including the ruling party in order to achieve some political gains. A-Sharjabi requested the state to eliminate the discriminatory taxes imposed on the Yemeni Jews.
Historical Background
According to the journalist Taha, the Yemeni Jewish community is a mix of Jews who came to Yemen a long time ago, and those of Yemeni origin who converted to Judaism.
“The only differentiation mentioned by the anthropologists is the way each [group] looks,” Taha tells The Media Line. “Those of Yemeni origin have narrow faces, black hair, black eyes and are shorter than the others, who have blue eyes and are fair-haired, as well as being taller.”
Some sources estimate the number of Jews in Yemen at the turn of the twentieth century at between 75,000 and 100,000. Small groups began to emigrate to Israel a hundred years ago. But the “flying carpet” campaign between 1949 and 1951 managed to transport some 47,000 Yemeni Jews through Aden to Israel.
About 5,000 to 6,000 Jews immigrated to Israel in 1983-1984 with the help of an Israeli agency, and a further 550 to 600 Jews left in 1993-1994, according to Taha.
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